What Planning Center Actually Costs a 150-Person Church (2026)
Quick summary: Planning Center is priced per module, and a typical 150-person church using Services, Check-Ins, Giving, Groups, and Calendar pays roughly $160 to $180 USD per month ($1,900 to $2,200 per year) as of July 2026. The People database is free; every other module climbs a $15/$32/$69/$115/$179/$239 monthly ladder based on usage. Flat-priced alternatives include ChurchPlanner (churchplanner.ca, about $14 USD/mo all-inclusive, billed as $19.99 CAD), Breeze/Tithely Church Management ($72 USD/mo), and ChurchTrac ($9 to $90 USD/mo). All figures verified from official pricing pages on July 2, 2026.
Planning Center pricing does not come as one number. There are ten products, each with its own tiers, and the tier you need depends on how many people touch each product. That is a fair model, but it makes it hard to answer the question churches actually ask: how much does Planning Center cost per month? Here is the actual math.
All prices below are USD, verified from Planning Center's public pricing pages on July 2, 2026.
How Planning Center pricing works
People, the membership database, is free forever. Everything else is a separate subscription with the same price ladder: $15, $32, $69, $115, $179, and $239 per month. What changes between products is the unit that pushes you up the ladder:
| Product | Priced by | Free tier | $15/mo | $32/mo | $69/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Services | People who access it | 5 | 20 | 50 | 150 |
| Check-Ins | Check-ins on busiest day | 10 | 30 | 75 | 200 |
| Giving | Donations per month | 10 | 75 | 200 | 500 |
| Groups | People in groups | 15 | 75 | 200 | 500 |
| Calendar | Rooms managed | 1 | 5 | 15 | 30 |
| Registrations | Attendees, largest event | 5 | 20 | 50 | 150 |
| Publishing / Church Center | Feature tier | Essential | Plus (custom pages) | Premium (media) | n/a |
Music Stand, the sheet music app, is an add-on to Services: $5/mo on the 50-person Services tier, $10/mo on the 150-person tier.
The math for a typical 150-person church
Assume Sunday attendance around 150, with 30-40 kids, a worship and tech rotation plus kids and hospitality volunteers of 35-50 people, about 80 people in small groups, 120-180 donations a month across weekly and monthly givers, four bookable rooms, and one big annual event like VBS with about 100 registrations.
| Product | Tier you actually need | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| People | Free | $0 |
| Services | 50 people | $32 |
| Check-Ins | 75 daily check-ins | $32 |
| Giving | 200 donations/mo | $32 |
| Groups | 200 group members | $32 |
| Calendar | 5 rooms | $15 |
| Core total | $143/mo |
Add the seasonal and optional pieces:
- Registrations at the 150-attendee tier is $69/mo. Planning Center is upfront that you can upgrade for VBS season and downgrade after, so call it 3 months a year: about $17/mo averaged.
- Church Center Plus (custom pages in the app) is $15/mo.
- Music Stand is $5/mo on this Services tier.
Realistic total: roughly $160 to $180 per month, or about $1,900 to $2,200 per year, before donation processing fees (2.15% + $0.30 per card transaction in the US).
A lean setup, staying on the smallest paid tiers and skipping Groups and Calendar, lands around $45 to $60 USD per month. It works, but a growing church tends to climb the ladder one product at a time, and each step is another $15 to $37 a month.
Is that a fair price?
Honestly, for what Planning Center does, often yes. Over 80,000 churches use it, the products are mature, and the free People database is genuinely free. If your church is large, multi-campus, or leans hard on registrations and a custom app, Planning Center earns its cost.
The math gets uncomfortable for smaller churches. A 150-person congregation paying $2,000+ USD a year is often using a fraction of each module. That is the gap flat-priced tools aim at.
The flat-price alternative
ChurchPlanner takes the opposite approach: one subscription, all features. Premium works out to about $7 USD/mo and Pro to about $14 to $15 USD/mo with unlimited contacts, SMS notifications, and every future feature included (billed as $9.99 and $19.99 CAD, so the exchange rate works in your favor). Attendance, event planning, ministry scheduling, contacts, reports, and locations are all in the box, and two months are free on a yearly subscription.
It also includes a free ChordPro converter and transposer.
For Canadian churches: ChurchPlanner is built in New Brunswick and bills in CAD, so $19.99 means $19.99, with no exchange surprise. Planning Center and the other tools on this page bill in USD, which adds roughly 35 to 40% at current rates, and Canadian donation processing through Planning Center runs 2.2% + $0.30 per domestic Visa/Mastercard transaction. That puts the typical Planning Center setup above around $2,600 to $3,000 CAD per year.
We will be straight with you about the trade: Planning Center offers donation processing, event registrations, and a member app today, and we do not. If those are must-haves right now, Planning Center is the safer pick. If your core needs are planning services, scheduling volunteers, and tracking attendance without watching module prices stack, try ChurchPlanner free.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Planning Center cost per month? Anywhere from $0 to $239+ per product. A realistic 150-person church using the five core modules pays about $143/mo year-round, or $160 to $180/mo once seasonal registrations and app customization are included. A church using only the smallest paid tiers can hold it near $45 to $60/mo.
Is Planning Center free? The People database is free, and every other product has a small free tier (for example, 5 Services users or 10 check-ins). A real congregation outgrows the free tiers quickly on any product it uses weekly.
Does Planning Center charge in local currency outside the US? No. Planning Center pricing is in USD everywhere, so churches in Canada and elsewhere pay the exchange rate on top of the sticker price. ChurchPlanner bills in CAD, which means US churches pay less than the sticker number, not more.
Can I cancel or change tiers anytime? Yes. Planning Center has no contracts, and churches commonly bump Registrations up for big events and back down after. That flexibility is real and worth using if you stay with them.
What does a comparable flat-price plan cost? ChurchPlanner Pro is about $14 to $15 USD/mo (billed as $19.99 CAD) with everything included. Breeze (now Tithely Church Management) is a flat $72 USD/mo. ChurchTrac runs $9 to $90 USD/mo depending on how many people you track. See our full Planning Center alternatives comparison.
Pricing verified July 2, 2026 from planningcenter.com. Planning Center is a trademark of Ministry Centered Technologies. ChurchPlanner is not affiliated with Planning Center.